Bernie Boston

Bernie Boston (May 18, 1933 – January 22, 2008) was an American photographer most noted for his iconic Flower Power image.
Life and career
Boston was born in Washington, D.C., and grew up in McLean, Virginia. During his time in high school he was a photographer for the newspaper and yearbook. He graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in 1955. He was a member of the Gamma Phi local fraternity and RIT, and after it became a chapter of Sigma Pi fraternity he was inducted into the national organization. After his time at RIT, Boston studied at the School of Aviation Medicine in the U.S. Air Force. He served in the Army for two years while in Germany practicing radiology "in a neurosurgical unit."
In 1958, he left the Army and returned to Washington, working in custom photofinishing. He started his news photography career in Dayton, Ohio with the Dayton Daily News. He moved back to Washington to work at The Washington Star and was director of photography when the newspaper folded in 1981. He then was hired by the Los Angeles Times to establish a photo operation in the nation's capital.
Boston covered every president from Harry S. Truman to Bill Clinton. In 1967 he was commissioned to shoot a portrait of former Black Panther H. Rap Brown. Noticing the trend of a call for civil rights in the late 1960s, Boston took more images of the Civil Rights Movement, including a portrait of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. during his Poor People's Campaign, and other notable events. On October 22, 1967, he photographed his most famous picture, Flower Power, which showed a Vietnam War protester inserting flowers into National Guardsmen's rifle barrels.
He was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize for a 1987 photograph of Coretta Scott King unveiling a bust of her late husband, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., in the U.S. Capitol.
Boston taught photojournalism classes at Northern Virginia Community College and Rochester Institute of Technology.
An archive of many of Boston's negatives as well as some prints and contact sheets is held at RIT. Established as a tribute to his memory and an inspiration for young photographers, it includes most of his work including the original negative for Flower Power.
Boston attributed his success to his knowledge of his equipment. In an age of film, he knew chemistry as well as the capabilities of his lenses. Boston also believed in dressing in a suit and tie. "I'm in the capital of the world and I don't believe you should walk into an office in jeans and a sweat-shirt. I think you should blend in."
Awards
1987: Finalist, Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography, Spot News Photography.
1993: Joseph A. Sprague Memorial Award from the National Press Photographers Association, their highest honor.
Inducted into the Hall of Fame of Sigma Delta Chi, the Society of Professional Journalists.
Publications
Bernie Boston: American Photojournalist. Henrietta, New York: RIT Cary Graphic Arts, 2006. By Therese Mulligan. .
Death
Boston died at his home in Basye, Virginia, on January 22, 2008, of amyloidosis.
References
1933 births
2008 deaths
Military personnel from Washington, D.C.
Photographers from Washington, D.C.
Rochester Institute of Technology alumni
Dayton Daily News
People from McLean, Virginia
Photographers from Virginia
20th-century American photographers
21st-century American photographers
Deaths from amyloidosis
United States Army personnel